


Dream Quest

by Minutia_R



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Bad Plans, Dark, Gen, I'm Sorry, Suicidal Thoughts, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 05:36:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6553075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Reynir wants them to think he was brave, to tell it to his parents and his brothers and sisters.  He means to be brave.  “I think this must have been the gods’ plan all along when they brought me here.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dream Quest

“I don’t mind,” Reynir says. “I told you, the first day, remember? When you said you would eat me. I told you it was fair.”

“Reynir.” Mikkel’s voice is a low growl; he is never angry, but Reynir can see that control slipping now. “That was a joke.”

“Only in the way you make a joke out of a true thing.” Reynir doesn’t add, _because the truth of it terrifies you._ He wants them to think he was brave, to tell it to his parents and his brothers and sisters. He means to be brave. “I think this must have been the gods’ plan all along when they brought me here.”

It might not be the best argument to convince a Danish atheist, but he doesn’t really need much convincing. Mikkel is kind, and Mikkel doesn’t like to hurt people, and stronger than kindness or distaste is Mikkel’s need to know.

More than that, Mikkel needs to not have lost people he loves--again--for no reason at all, for a purpose that was doomed to fail before it began. Reynir needs that, too. He can still see Sigrun, shouting defiance to the last, staved in by one swipe of a giant’s claw. Lalli calling on all the power of his luonto and dying slowly day by day when she finally deserted him. Reynir needs that not to have happened just because he thought he’d be very clever and see Denmark once before he had to go back home.

If the cure they found works, at least that's something. But they can only test it on an infected person, and an infected person is what they don't have. Yet.

The radio has been silent for weeks. There will be no orders from the outside world. Tuuri is silent, too, except for the clatter of typewriter keys. Bruised and shocked, she’s retreated into the thing she’s been trained for: to observe, and to record. She’s only spoken once, to register a brief protest that it could be her.

It can’t. She’s not immune, but she’s not a mage. She doesn’t have the power that Reynir does, to cross over into other worlds, to venture into the unknown and bring back knowledge.

And however the experiment works out, they'll have Tuuri's meticulous notes. Even if things go disastrously wrong, maybe someone will find them, someday. Maybe it will help.

Emil is standing guard outside, refusing to have anything to do with this. Earlier, he shouted and raged, and Reynir didn’t need the translation that Tuuri didn’t give: _You can’t. You won’t. I won’t let you._ But it isn’t his choice.

It’s crowded in the office, with one of the bunks dragged in and fitted up with makeshift restraints. There shouldn’t be room for a sheepdog in here, but there she is, the first time Reynir’s seen her in the waking world. He reaches out a hand and feels her soft fur beneath it. Then he lays back and Mikkel buckles him in.

“Tell me not to do this,” says Mikkel, “and I won’t.” It isn’t a conditional--there’s no _if_ \--it’s an order, and a plea.

“I’m ready,” Reynir answers.

And softly, like a kiss, Mikkel plunges the needle into his arm.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really terribly sorry, I didn't mean for the first fic I finished in this fandom to be like this.
> 
> ETA: I don't usually make major changes in stories after I post them, but a couple of commenters brought to my attention that in the original version I didn't really . . . explain what was going on here. So I added a couple of lines that hopefully have made things clearer.


End file.
